The disclosure relates to renewable oil compositions of matter extracted from biomass, and/or methods and/or apparatus for obtaining the compositions of matter. More specifically, certain embodiments of the disclosure relate to compositions of matter comprising extracted algae oils that may have high nitrogen, oxygen, and fatty acid content, high hydrogen to carbon ratios, and low saturated hydrocarbon content. Certain embodiments of the extracted algae oils contain little sulfur and little or no triglycerides. These algae oil characteristics are unusual in comparison to conventional fossil petroleum crude oils and to vegetable oils that have been studied in recent years as candidates for production of renewable fuels. As disclosed in other of the Applicants' patent applications, and briefly described herein, upgrading embodiments of the novel algae oils have been accomplished by thermal treatment, hydrotreatment, and/or deoxygenation at operating conditions compatible with existing petroleum refinery process units. The upgrading has produced advantageous results that are unusual compared to fossil and/or vegetable feed stocks. The unusual characteristics of the algae oils, therefore, are expected to make the algae oils good candidates for upgrading and co-processing in conventional petroleum refineries.
Increasing energy demands and decreasing fossil petroleum reserves require that renewable energy sources be developed and improved. Meeting this need with renewable oils obtained from biomass will be more feasible and economical if the renewable oil can be treated efficiently in existing petroleum refineries or at least with conventional petroleum refining process designs. This way, decades of research and development and capital investment may be utilized to process and upgrade refinery-compatible renewable oils or blends of renewable oils and fossil oils.
Long lists of renewable oils have been proposed in early discussions of alternative fuels, and long lists of conventional refinery processes have been proposed for upgrading the renewable oils. In these early discussions, algae oils have been grouped with vegetable oils as candidates for processing by conventional petroleum refinery units, but very little information about algae oil composition has been disclosed or discussed, except that algae oil comprises hetero-atoms. In patent literature, algae oils are typically grouped with vegetable oils as high-trigylceride oils and the assumption has been made that these oils can be upgraded in conventional refineries, but little confirmatory data or detail has been disclosed. Refiners have expressed concern that high-triglyceride and/or high hetero-atom containing oils are incompatible with their equipment and process schemes and are not characterized and understood sufficiently to be fed to their refineries.
There is a need, therefore, for algae oil compositions of matter that are compatible with conventional petroleum refineries, and a need for detailed characterization of the algae oils that can guide selection of flowscheme, catalyst, and/or operating conditions in conventional refinery units. Various embodiments of the disclosure meet these needs, and comprise extracted algae oils that have unique compositions compared to fossil petroleum and vegetable oils. Further, the composition of the unique algae oils has been studied and reported in this disclosure, laying a foundation for informed selection of processes and conditions to upgrade the algae oils for use as renewable fuels.